PSA: Nova Launcher is owned by an analytics company

It is significantly less than Nova. People keep suggesting it but it's not a true replacement for those that were actually using Nova to its full potential. They're frankly isn't a replacement right now that goes all out on providing users customization options. That's not in vogue anymore, apparently.

Lawnchair 2 isn't available for my phone since the app is too old, and I'm only on Android 12.

Edit: this only applies to the Play Store version

Lawnchair 2 is no longer under development. The development team always starts to develop a new launcher based on the latest stock launcher every time a new Android version is released (so basically every year). This way the app usually never gets past the alpha or beta builds till they already move on to start from scratch. I don't understand their strategy.

Shoutout for Niagara. High quality reliable launcher. Only switched away after 2+ years cuz I got a little bored of the interface

I used Niagara free for quite a while. It does have a fair few features locked behind the paywall, but it's certainly usable.

Niagara's free version is still pretty great too. I usually pay for apps but don't want a subscription for my launcher, so I use it in free mode. Despite the limitations it's methodology of getting you to the app you're looking for as quickly as possible is a game changer. I don't know if I'll be able to go back to icons and folders + app drawer launchers haha

+1 for Hyperion, nice customization features.

This seems awesome, testing it out.

Seconding Total, that's where I ended up after leaving Nova and trying a few. Very, very customisable, but a bit of a learning curve.

Of course, but when something like that happens to a popular app there will be an outcry. If you are not a tech person you might miss that, but I'd argue if you care about what launcher your phone has and you care about this issue to go foss you are probably the type of person who'd hear about it.

I use KISS launcher but there are many other options mentioned here that are also good. Yes, nothing is exactly like Nova. But lots of other stuff is good too.

What happened to simple tools? And I downloaded them from F-Droid

You don't have to do it! :)

One of the original maintainers of Simple Mobile Tools forked the project and he's adding new features and fixing bugs.

The project is called Fossify and you can already download the apps from both Play store and F-Droid

Same. I am surprised I've been able to use it for so long without any issues.

Depends how important some features are for you, e.g. read here https://help.niagaralauncher.app/article/20-sesame-integration

Right now its probably OK, but Nova was also OK for a while. If a FOSS launcher does this and is popular, it will be forked. Niagara won't be forked.

The man dev quit the project and others are picking up the pieces. They might not have access to the Play Store account, or maybe they do. Either way, the new team has not produced a new final version yet. Just a string of alphas and betas. As of now the beta is the main version. It's good enough for daily use.

https://github.com/LawnchairLauncher/lawnchair/releases

https://github.com/LawnchairLauncher/lawnchair/releases/tag/v14.0.0-beta2

It's a beta, duh.

The beta was the first release in a few years.

The released the nightly build a few hour ago: https://github.com/LawnchairLauncher/lawnchair/releases/tag/nightly

I guess we can expect the final version in the coming days/weeks

Why is anything in the world the way it is?

Who knows where thoughts come from? They just appear... Yeah.

You need to work on how you ask for things... This isn't my product and I don't work for you.

I don't know if this is news to you, but the "then" on the end of your statement has some sharp edges on it and represents you as entitled (making you aware if that wasn't your intention)

A little more grace goes a long way when you're asking strangers for help on the internet, friend.

The choice gesture vs. nav button is usually part of android itself. In my case (pixel with therefor nearly stock android) its in settings -> system -> navigation mode (or something similar since its in german in my case). If you can't find it, search for "navigation button your phone model".

Edit: sorry, i just realized you meant the app drawer, not the overview of currently opened apps. I don't know the answer to that.

Edit edit: ok i found something in lawnchairs settings. The last setting is called gestures. If you have navigation buttons enabled instead of nav gestures (see above) you could bind the home button to open the app drawer.

Yeah I tried it too and that's a major no go right there. The fact it's based off pixel launcher is killing my interest out of the gate, but I at least hoped that it would provide the same degree of customization options and tools as Nova. Doesn't look like it, and no ability to call the app drawer without swiping.

Frankly any app that pushes gestures as the default navigation method without respecting people that just want to use buttons and taps, I can't say I'm interested.

Guess I'm sticking with Nova 7 until it just stops working.

Having participated in many "charities", you'd be a fool to believe an operation just because it is registered as a "not for profit".

Look at the executive-pay, and if it is over 2x the cost-of-living, you're looking at a money-funneling-to-executives scam, that is masquerading as a not-for-profit.

The amount of spine required to have real integrity, in this planet, is apparently greater than the amount of spine available in a human life?

I'm a little worried about Niagara, since they have a sponsored result for every time I've searched for another launcher. Is it a paid launcher? Usually the heavily advertised stuff I see on the play store has all kinds of issues.

Subscription? That sucks.... I bought it outright a bit back, it was pricey, maybe $15 CAD? (Can't remember)

Sorry to hear it has gone up so much... But that does seem to be the way of the app world... Pricey, subscription (even when they cannot possibly justify it) or both!

It is 30 bucks for lifetime. I don't think it is that insane. It is well worth it IMO. Also they have a fair policy in prices across the globe.

Lol, here in India it is 100 INR (1.2 USD) yearly. Thank god for regional pricing.

Simple—just don't pay for the premium tier. Free one is good enough for most.

I looked at the paid features and none of them look useful to me so I'm just not going to give them money.

Awesome.... Now I have to check sesame

What the fuck are you even doing with your phone that this even matters? Are you running multiple Fortune 500 companies from it? solely?

Honestly, your comment reads so much like advertising copy that I half-suspect you're a bot.

It's more likely than you think!

The way I see it, unless I'm at risk of having personally identifiable information leaked, ad companies can waste all the money they want on me. I don't see anything they make anyway.

I think this is more tied with advertising analytics, but I share the same opinion. I don't love it, but it's not a killer. The fediverse tends to attract a more idealistic and paranoid crowd, which I don't think is reflective of how most people are.

Hmm, I've had it happen once, thought it was odd. Are you on a Samsung too, like the other comment? How often does it happen?

I thought it was from Samsung, never crossed my mind it could be nova that is hanging. Sad days.

Like I've said elsewhere, the fediverse tends to have a lot of paranoid zealots. It's a bit offputting really.

You can stay on Nova 7, it's not going to stop working. Nova 8 is what you want to avoid, so you just can't let it update to a new version that will have all of the bullshit put in.

Obviously that's not a permanent solution but there's no reason to throw away Nova 7 right now if it's works for you.

The last clean version was Nova 7.0.57

Install that APK, redownload the Nova prime app from Play store, they work together fine.

Adguard can firewall it. Now I'll wait for somebody to reply to me saying how horrible adguard is for privacy haha

https://github.com/M66B/NetGuard

The only caveat is that it's setting itself up as a local VPN for the block/allow list, so you can't use it in parallel with an actual VPN. My workaround is to have my actual VPN installed directly on the router both at home and at work, which covers 98% of my use cases.

Check out TrackerControl on the F-Droid app store. It lets you block Internet access to individual apps and selectively block trackers and other analytics. It does this by acting as a VPN in the android OS so it won't work while on another VPN but that's good enough for my needs.

https://trackercontrol.org/

Ok so I just started digging for alternatives, thanks to your question.

I had previously simply deactivated network access for Nova (Settings -> Apps -> App Management -> Select Nova -> Data Usage -> Disable Mobile Data, Disable Wi-Fi, and flick the switch for Background Data for good measure.

Now, that will result in a toast on the main screen every time you unlock the phone "Data for Nova7 is disabled, you can activate it in the settings". This might however be a OnePlus specific error, since searching for it only gives me a result in their product forum.

Nevertheless, I dug around with LogCat Reader and found that the message is displayed by com.android.systemui. Not really surprising, but I wasn't sure which exact system resource is responsible. So then I went ahead with AppOps and set the "Display Toast" permission to "Ignore", and voila.

Caveats:

1. You need root to use AppOps
2. You won't get any toast now (I don't actually remember seeing any useful ones in over a decade, but there might be something out there)

Now they have your money AND will track you.

The chances of some data being leaked is always possible but I'll roll the dice if it means getting to keep using a launcher that's not god awful or pixel-based until some other launchers become more mature.

If we're were talking financial information or something, sure, the chance of leaks is a huge problem, but some usage analytics leaking is more annoying than anything else.

With xposed you can do everything, which is not graphene exclusive.

What about CalyxOS's firewall? What puts GrapheneOS apart?

You pick them yourself. Search for an app, long press and then add to favorites

Paid*

"Payed" is a nautical term, hence the spell check failure.

RIP 😭

i use nova for it's name and icon customization (previously used lynx)

Except FOSS explicitly implies the user is free (as in freedom, not 0$), and the software isn't a product or service, but a tool.

That line only applies when a non-free service or software that's supposed to be meant for profit doesn't have a clear money income. Don't compare "oh how generous is google for giving me free email and drive for no shady reasons at all" to "i host my own email and cloud using foss projects".

Also, windows is basically spyware with a bit of unoptimized OS on top and you still (should) pay for it.

Yeah. It's a dumb statement because there are plenty of paid things that make you the product and plenty of free ones that don't.

it do be a dumb statement because it generalizes a lot but in propiertary software it msot often is true

Great point! Maybe I need to amend my statement to not include FOSS?

I figured as much considering their heavy ad spend on the play store. They pop up as the number one result as an ad for every launcher search I make.

Put them in different folders?

IMO the theming feature in Pro is worth it. Having all icons in the same style makes the app list way less distracting. And supporting the dev is a nice bonus too.

I don't understand why no phone company has considered making at least something similar as default. A vertical list of apps is way more intuitive than a mess of dozens of apps with too many colors. Now if switch to a new phone, I even have to check if it supports gestures for third-party launchers. Another a-hole feature of some brands (specifically Xiaomi). Using Niagara with the bottom navigation buttons makes no sense.

Same here. There are quirks by I think I'm really use to them now. I tried Nova, Lawnchair and some others over the years but I think my long term Smart Launcher still fits me like a glove.